Luton Airport (dart)

[collism2026]

I am travelling from Colchester to Luton Airport (dart) tomorrow (Thursday)and returning on Monday. However, on the outward leg I am breaking the journey over-night at Luton, and so will not arrive at the airport until Friday. I just had a couple of questions please. I will be buying an off-peak return ticket with a network railcard.

1. If I buy a ticket to Luton Airport will it also be valid to travel as far as Luton?

2. I understand that break of journey on the outward leg in the manner described is usually fine, but it has been suggested that such a break of journey is not permitted in relation to the journey Luton Airport Parkway and Luton Airport (the monorail), with the ticket between these two stations only being valid on the day of the start of the outward leg. Does anybody know if that is correct please?


Any help/advice much appreciated!

 

[Edvid]

I am travelling from Colchester to Luton Airport (dart) tomorrow (Thursday)and returning on Monday. However, on the outward leg I am breaking the journey over-night at Luton, and so will not arrive at the airport until Friday. I just had a couple of questions please. I will be buying an off-peak return ticket with a network railcard.

Welcome to the forum!

1. If I buy a ticket to Luton Airport will it also be valid to travel as far as Luton?

It wouldn't be valid to travel between Luton Airport Parkway and Luton.

2. I understand that break of journey on the outward leg in the manner described is usually fine, but it has been suggested that such a break of journey is not permitted in relation to the journey Luton Airport Parkway and Luton Airport (the monorail), with the ticket between these two stations only being valid on the day of the start of the outward leg. Does anybody know if that is correct please?

According to industry data on BR Fares:

VALIDITY
One journey in each direction to be made within:​
Outward Validity:​	AS ADVERTISED (1 day)​
Return Validity:​	AS ADVERTISED (1 month)​

the outward leg of an Off-Peak Return is only valid on the first day. My suggestion would be to buy the Off-Peak Return to Luton (not the airport stations) and a DART single each way.

Thursday - outward leg (Off-Peak Return) from Colchester to Luton
Friday - part of return leg (Off-Peak Return) from Luton to Parkway, DART single to Airport
Monday - DART single to Parkway, rest of return leg (Off-Peak Return) from Parkway to Colchester

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 00:11 ==

Alternatively if you're OK with using local buses on Friday and the following Monday there are plenty along the Luton - Parkway - Airport corridor and they're cheaper than the DART. On returning from the Airport you could even commence your return leg 'short' at Parkway (i.e. no need to start at Luton) if desired.

 

[mickey]

If you’re going from anywhere in Luton (that’s not Parkway station) to the airport then definitely just get the bus instead, it’s not worth the trek back for the Dart. Then just buy a Dart single when you come back.

 

[collism2026]

But National Rail seems to say something different about break of journey - permissible to resume journey next day - https://www.nationalrail. My co.uk/ticket-types/tickets/g2r/ - is that not correct?

 

[Haywain]

But National Rail seems to say something different about break of journey - permissible to resume journey next day - https://www.nationalrail. My co.uk/ticket-types/tickets/g2r/ - is that not correct?

You're going to have a hard job convincing anybody that it wasn't possible to complete a journey when services are provided round the clock.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 08:50 ==

If you are staying in the town centre overnight just get a bus to the airport on Friday. It's quicker and easier than messing about with trains and the DART.

 

[Edvid]

But National Rail seems to say something different about break of journey - permissible to resume journey next day - https://www.nationalrail. My co.uk/ticket-types/tickets/g2r/ - is that not correct?

Assuming you meant https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ticket-types/tickets/svr/ (content is the same) I presume you're referring to the following:

Outward Journey​

​

[...]

Break Of Journey​

Break of journey is permitted unless otherwise indicated by a restriction shown against the ticket's Restriction Code.
Overnight break of journey - if the journey cannot be completed on the same day, the ticket may be used to continue the journey on the following day.
Unless otherwise indicated in the relevant restriction code, time restrictions apply as from the initial origin station on both days.
The appropriate restrictions for the actual day on which travel is being undertaken apply (for example, it may be that if day 1 is on Sunday, no restrictions apply, but on day 2, the Monday-Friday restrictions apply). All travel must be completed by 04:29 in the morning after this second day.

That extra detail (which isn't made clear elsewhere) does suggest you can continue your outward leg on the second day but it comes down to staff interpretation of whether your outward leg was possible to make within the first day, which as Haywain notes above might be difficult.

I still recommend buying the return to Luton as that way you won't have to 'test' the second day of travelling outward and your overall cost would be no higher.